VenuWorks Presents Blood Sweat & Tears featuring Bo Bice

Tickets On Sale 8/4 at 10AM!

(Joliet, IL) – It’s been more than four decades since drummer/producer Bobby Colomby and friends assembled the first group to successfully blend rock and jazz into a genre-crossing sound and style. So successfully in fact, that the band’s second album, Blood Sweat & Tears, topped the Billboard charts for many weeks and beat out the Beatles’ Abbey Road for the prestigious Album of the Year Grammy award. That album produced three major hit singles: “You Made Me So Very Happy”, “Spinning Wheel”, and “And When I Die”.

But now Colomby is looking for much more as he develops Blood Sweat & Tears into a contemporary voice, one that reaches beyond a single, nostalgic audience. “I no longer want to target just one generation. That would be a mistake. With this updated version, I want this band to gain recognition with a wider audience. I want people of all ages to experience what this music has to offer.”

Will Blood Sweat & Tears have any of the original members? “Not a chance,” says Colomby. “I think of this band like baseball’s Yankees. When you’re at a Yankee game you’re not going to see Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle or Lou Gehrig. What you do come to expect is a team of top-notch players upholding a tradition of winning. That’s the Yankee legacy. It’s what people expect from BS&T as well…brilliant musicians, singers, songs and arrangements.”

Colomby also describes the instrumental players chosen for Blood Sweat & Tears in glowing terms. “This band, man for man, pound for pound, is better than the first version of BS&T. Without a doubt, they’re a ridiculously talented bunch. The drummer Dylan Elsie is better than I am, or was.”

Strong praise, coming from a musician/producer/manager who knows a winner when he sees it. Colomby’s resume includes initiating significant career achievements for Jaco Pastorious, the Jacksons, and Harry Connick Jr. among others. Notably it also includes management and production of trumpeter Chris Botti – currently one of America’s most successful instrumentalists and winner of the 2013 Grammy for Best Instrumental Pop Album.

“The first version of BS&T,” adds Colomby, “was designed to introduce jazz to pop music. That was my passion…and still is.”

To that end, Blood Sweat & Tears will perform their hits with spirit and enthusiasm, as if it was their first performance of those songs. The band will also introduce some new elements into every performance, including a segment devoted to “Songs We Wish We Had Recorded,” done in classic BS&T style.

Bobby Colomby’s enthusiastic comments underscore his excitement about the future. The arrival of this latest version of Blood Sweat & Tears is the next chapter in a musical tale that stretches from the creativity and turbulence of the late ‘60s to the swiftly changing world of the 21st Century. The next invigorating phase in the continuing adventures of BS&T is about to begin.

During the early years of Fox’s hit TV show “American Idol”, Colomby received many phone calls from friends telling him to check out singer Bo Bice, saying that his was a fresh voice and that he did a masterful job singing “Spinning Wheel”. Bice is a well-seasoned southern rock singer with a great stage presence that the audience just loves. “Many of my more musically knowledgeable buddies also suggested that I ask Bo to join the band. I’m pleased to say that that’s exactly what happened and by the reaction of audiences worldwide, it was a great match.”